Good catches at both Deep Inlet and Hidden Falls on Sunday, current estimate of 45,000 and 74,000 respectively. Deep Inlet was a bit of a surprise to some. Gillnet fishing sounds slow so far today at Deep Inlet. Hot and sunny, and the fish are stalled outside the THA.
Deep Inlet – Sixteen boats fished Deep Inlet on Sunday. We are still processing samples so don’t have sex ratio and age class yet, but there seem to be lots of small fish, possibly early 3 year olds. Similar to Hidden Falls’ early catches, the catch of 45,000 at Deep Inlet is the largest catch for stat week 26 that we have ever seen. I would caution that in the years of high week 25 and 26 catches, 2001, 2009 and 2010, the returns were not stellar years overall (800,000 to 1.5 million total returns). For now the catches are great news, let’s hope it continues. There is a some troll effort on the chum outside of the Deep Inlet THA.
Hidden Falls – Some 65 boats fished at HF yesterday and 74,000 chum salmon were caught so far in week 26. This puts the run at ~180,000. Historically week 26 has some huge precedents – years ’95, ’96, & ’01 were 300,000+ catches for the week. It seems unlikely Thursday will yield that kind of abundance. Point Augusta was poor, although that doesn’t necessarily mean there were no chum coming around Augusta farther out in Chatham.
It feels more like July 4 than June 23 with schools of chum pushing the barrier net at Hidden Falls, big catches at Deep Inlet, and DIPAC beginning cost recovery at Amalga today. Size and sex ratio data will be updated in the fishery update section later tonight.
Good fishing.
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